Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has argued that his administration is already prioritizing the arrest and deportation of dangerous illegal immigrants from the United States.
Mayorkas, who is scheduled to leave office in about a week, defended the Biden administration’s record on immigration and border security over the past four years in a wide-ranging farewell press conference. Partnership with Associated Press. The Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) blames global immigration trends in part on the U.S.-Mexico border crisis, but says he is also pushing for the deportation of criminals and other security threats from Mexico. The United States appears to be rebelling against President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to focus on country. (Related: ‘This policy is dangerous’: Chicago Democrats fight to repeal city’s sanctuary law and support President Trump’s criminal deportation)
“That’s exactly what we’ve been doing and what we’ve been focused on,” Mayorkas told The Associated Press in an interview published Monday.
But deportation data compiled under the Biden and Trump administrations suggests that the two sides had very different priorities for removing criminal immigrants.
WASHINGTON, DC – November 16: (R) Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) arrives at the Capitol to attend a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. He bumps his fist at Department Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. 16, 2021, Washington DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
A total of 273,708 undocumented immigrants were deported during the Biden administration’s first three fiscal years, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, according to data previously compiled by the National Center on Immigration. and other deportations initiated by federal immigration authorities. Requested by Enforcement (NICE) and shared with Daily Caller News Foundation. This rate was a significant decrease from the 749,462 expulsions in the first three fiscal years of President Trump’s administration.
The data shows that the sharp decline in deportations correlates with a decline in deportations of criminal immigrants. In the first three fiscal years of the Trump administration, there were 423,102 deportations of criminal aliens; during the same period under the current administration, that number dropped to 134,617, a decrease of more than 70%.
The stark disparity in the deportation of criminal immigrants has been pointed out by former ICE Director Tom Homan, who has been tapped to be the incoming Trump administration’s border czar.
“The number of criminals is only a fraction of the total deportations,” Homan previously told DCNF. “Despite Secretary Mayorkas saying he will focus on threats to public safety, arrests and removals of criminal aliens are down 74%.”
“Domestic arrests are down significantly. This is embarrassing for them,” Homan said.
While removals of criminal immigrants have decreased under the Biden administration, the level of illegal immigration into the United States has reached an all-time high. Fiscal years 2023 and 2024 were the worst and second worst years for encounters with illegal immigrants, respectively. President Biden ended his fourth fiscal year in office with about 8.5 million migrants encountered along the southern border.
Mayorkas, the first Cabinet member to be impeached since the 1800s, responded to a question about the massive border crisis that unfolded on his watch, blaming the failure of the 2024 Senate border agreement and also pointing to global immigration trends. did.
“The level of displacement is now greater than at any time since World War II,” he told The Associated Press. “And it is a phenomenon that is being experienced internationally.”
If Mayorkas wins Senate confirmation, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem will succeed him. Caleb Vitello, a veteran of the agency, was chosen to lead ICE, and former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott was named to lead Customs and Border Protection.
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